I happen to be skimming through Youtube and accidentally found this audio interview of Mr. Dressup’s Casey & Finnegan (Judith Lawrence) visit with Jenny Brown on Hornby Island Radio 96.5 CHFR Dated May 29, 2012.

Mr. Dressup aired every weekday morning, and each day Mr. Dressup (Ernie Coombs) would lead children through a series of songs, stories, arts, crafts, and imagination games, with the help of his puppet friends Casey and Finnegan, a child and a dog who lived in a treehouse in the back yard. Judith Lawrence was the puppeteer who brought Casey and Finnegan to life.

The show ran from 1967 to February 14, 1996. During that time Judith Lawrence retired and slowly so did Casey and Finnegan from the show. When Casey and Finnegan stopped appearing it was explained on screen that Casey and Finnegan were now attending kindergarten.

On September 18th 2001, Ernie Coombs (Mr. Dressup) died of a stroke in Toronto. Generations of Canadian children, as well as kids growing up in northern regions of the United States which received the CBC signal, grew up watching Mr. Dressup were devastated.

Today Judith Lawrence lives in British Columbia, has the Order of Canada, became a strong community leader for her community, a designer of the recycling depot, and a farmer/environmentalist.

I managed to find a behind the scene image of the Tree House Cassey and Finnegan “lived” in…something I always wanted to see 🙂

I also came across someone who built Casey and Finnegan puppets! Check out the step by step build HERE! and HERE!